Hundred-year-old Porcupine Salad Recipe

I have warm memories of making Raggedy Ann Salad and other character-shaped salads using canned fruits when I was a child, so I was thrilled to see a recipe for Porcupine Salad in a hundred-year-old cookbook.

Porcupine Salad was fun and easy to make, and it turned out beautifully. Almond slices are inserted into a canned pear half, and whole cloves are used to make the eyes.

Here’s the original recipe:

Source: The Housewife’s Cook Book by Lilia Frich (1917)

When I made the recipe I didn’t serve it on a lettuce leaf, and I skipped the fruit salad dressing, but they could be added if desired. I found this recipe in the same cookbook that contained the Fruit Salad Dressing Made with Honey that I made last week, so that dressing could be used to replicate the original recipe’s serving suggestion.

15 thoughts on “Hundred-year-old Porcupine Salad Recipe”

I vaguely remember canned pears turning into rabbits at Easter time, but this is a new one. It’s really cute, and it’s exactly the kind of “cooking” that can give little ones an introduction to the kitchen.